Navigating Organizational Change

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You can't forget to deal with the human side of technology-driven change

The budget's been approved for your big IT project. To be successful, it will take much more than getting the requirements right, or getting the programming right, or delivering on time.

It will also take readying the people who will be emotionally impacted by the changes imposed by new system (for example, changing job descriptions, changing compensation package, etc.). If the system isn't embraced by its users in the way it was intended, you'll have a failure on your hands. It's not only much less costly to catch the resistance to the rollout early in the process than later, but it's also more likely to lead to project success.

One CIO told me that his organization was implementing a "simple" change. This change was so simple that no programming would be required. In fact, they were only going to change one field in one data base. No big deal! Turns out, the one field they were changing was "number of weeks per paycheck", and the number was going up from one to two. This meant that thousands of employees who planned their personal budgets around weekly paychecks were now going to get bi-weekly paychecks. This affected everyone in the company. From a programming standpoint, this was a minor change. From an organizational change standpoint, this was a major change!

Sheila Cox

Senior Consultant

Who Needs Change Management?

Every IT organization could benefit from change management training. To engage the larger group so that it is prepared and accepts your project when it rolls out, you need group buy-in early in the process. In her workshop for IT leaders, Cutter Senior Consultant Sheila Q. Cox equips IT leaders with the insight, perspective, and tools to help users deal with the human side of IT-driven change.

What Does this Workshop Look Like?

This workshop can be customized to be from one- to three-days, though two or three days are recommended to allow time for participants to practice on their own projects.

Sample Curriculum

Day One

Overview of Managing Organizational Change

Understanding Business Case for Change

Vector Analysis

Past Experience with Organizational Changes

Implementation History Assessment

Implications for Future Change Implementation

Measuring Successful Change Implementation

Balanced Business Scorecard

Roles in Change

Sponsor/Champion/Agent/Target

Role Relationships

Linear/Triangle/Square

Role Mapping

Day Two

Sponsor Effectiveness Assessment

Sponsorship Best Practices

Stages of Commitment

Agent Effectiveness Assessment

Agent Best Practices

Agent Skills

Role of Advocate/Champion

Individual Response to Change

Change Readiness Assessment

Target Constituencies

Day Three

Motivation

By role, by level, by personality

Effective communication

Culture

Organizational Culture Assessment

Level of Consistency between Current Culture and Desired Organizational Change

Subcultures by Constituency

Resistance to Change

Positive Response

Negative Response

How to Manage Resistance

Motivation/Communication

Sponsors/Agents/Champions/Saboteurs

Frame of Reference

Communication

Change Communication by Style

Communication Matrix

Reinforcing Change

For more information on bringing this workshop to your organization, contact us by phone at +1 781 648 8700 or by email at sales@cutter.com or complete the form below.

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